Following a research that found 7 out of 10 businesses in the nation have experienced ransomware attacks in the previous two years, companies in the United Arab Emirates have increased their budgets for cybersecurity by up to 35 percent, compared to the maximum 30 percent worldwide jump over the past year.
UAE organizations are better equipped than ever to defend against AI-powered assaults, according to the 2023 Data Risk Management report published by US-based multi-cloud data management provider Veritas Technologies. Nevertheless, organizations still need to fortify their online infrastructure.
The recently released research emphasized that artificial intelligence (AI) not only improves threat detection but also gives thieves the ability to carry out complex operations.
Ramzi Itani, regional director at Veritas Technologies: “The evolution of AI (artificial intelligence) is making data privacy compliance more complex. As such, regional and national regulatory bodies must continue to develop legislative guardrails for public-facing large language models (LLMs) and Generative AI (GenAI).”
“Vigilance and adaptability are not merely optional but essential, and are also recognised as critical by individuals,” he underscored.
Itani also noted: “Veritas research on the use of generative AI technologies in professional environments showed that 44 per cent of employees surveyed in the UAE understood that using public generative AI tools did introduce greater risks of sensitive information being leaked.”
According to a report that found 73% of UAE organizations had successfully faced a ransomware attack in the previous two years—much higher than the global average of 65%—the UAE has seen more successful ransomware attacks than the majority of the 13 countermarkets.
A little over half (52%) of UAE-based organizations reported data loss from causes other than ransomware attacks during the previous two years, proving that ransomware assaults are not the sole kind of cyberattacks.
Zero Trust model
“Some key strategies that organisations can implement to safeguard digital identity amidst these challenges can be embracing a Zero Trust model – implementing strict access controls, continuous monitoring, and robust authentication mechanisms such as biometric authentication,” said Mohamed Eissa, regional sales director at Entrust.
He added companies must also implement end-to-end encryption for sensitive data and prioritise cybersecurity training to educate employees and users against phishing attempts, noting that “even the most highly-trained security professionals may miss increasingly realistic AI-generated phishing scams, across text, voice, and video.”
